Car manufacturers often hand out cribsheets with the launch of a new car, boasting facts and snippets from the marketing folk.
We motoring journos rarely get to see the marketing bods – usually, because what they say is not understood by us. We thing they’re fanciful types whose chats are often misinterpreted and repeated with cynicism. Manufacturers, perhaps understandably, don’t like this: the marketing chaps hate it. So car makers split us up.
Thus, communications with marketing is often through the filter of the press office (exceptions such as Audi do exist: it has a dedicated Product Manager with a direct press communications role. Busy man nowadays, he is…). Mercedes is one brand that favours the press office filter though: the results of this are documents such as the marketing summary for the latest all-new Mercedes SLK.
What does it reveal? Lots.
SLK customers?
61% female – I’d guess this is quite high for a Mercedes, suggesting the SLK is a success in broadening the brand’s appeal. The average age is 50, which is less surprising. 38% are managers or company owners: what about the other 62%, though? Housewives? Non-managers? Retirees? It’s not mentioned.
Tellingly, 64% of sales are retail, rather than the normal 50-50 split of most cars.
SLK repeat buyers?
Only 25% of Mercedes SLK customers are repeat buyers. Interesting – does it mean 3 in 4 SLK owners move away from the brand, into rival sports cars, or instead choose another Mercedes with more seats or more practicality? Or maybe it means the SLK is a car for life, so the vast majority buy their cars and keep them for a lifetime?
Also, was this repeat-purchase percentage higher before BMW made the Z4 a more widely-rounded coupe-cab?
SLK engines?
71% picked the base 200K in the old-shape car. That’s why there are double the amount of 4-pot motors now, compared to V6s. 1% chose the SLK 55 AMG, meaning it’s probably no more in the current one. Of the SLK 300 and 350, more than twice as many went for the lower-power V6 compared to the SLK 350: this is not a car people buy for the motor.
SLK gearboxes?
You need telling? Probably not. For the record, 88% of SLK buyers went for an auto last time round – if anything, I’d have expected that to be higher still.
SLK sales?
Nearly twice as many SLK were sold in 2005 than in 2010. Sales, though, experienced their biggest fall between 05-06: since then, it’s been a gradual decline. Estimates for the new one? Mercedes doesn’t give them.
One page of double-side A4, then, and you’ve got a pretty clear picture of where the SLK sits. No wonder motoring journos love ‘em – which is why it’s surprising more makers don’t do them. I’d love for all of ‘em to do it. I’m such a geek, I’d collect them.
Who’s up for it, car makers?
+ Ford adding smart stop start
